II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1111 

To provide equal treatment for utility special entities using utility operationsrelated swaps, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 28, 2015 

Mr. DONNELLY (for himself and Mr. INHOFE) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To provide equal treatment for utility special entities using 

utility operations-related swaps, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Power Risk 

5 Management Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. TRANSACTIONS WITH UTILITY SPECIAL ENTITIES. 

7 Section 1a(49) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 

8 U.S.C. 1a(49)) is amended by adding at the end the fol9 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(E) CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS WITH A

2 UTILITY SPECIAL ENTITY.— 

3 ‘‘(i) Transactions in utility operations4 related swaps shall be reported pursuant to 

5 section 4r. 

6 ‘‘(ii) In making a determination to ex7 empt pursuant to subparagraph (D), the 

8 Commission shall treat a utility operations9 related swap entered into with a utility 

10 special entity, as defined in section 

11 4s(h)(2)(D), as if it were entered into with 

12 an entity that is not a special entity, as de13 fined in section 4s(h)(2)(C).’’. 

14 SEC. 3. UTILITY SPECIAL ENTITY DEFINED. 

15 Section 4s(h)(2) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 

16 U.S.C. 6s(h)(2)) is amended by adding at the end the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(D) UTILITY SPECIAL ENTITY.—For pur19 poses of this Act, the term ‘utility special enti20 ty’ means a special entity, or any instrumen21 tality, department, or corporation of or estab22 lished by a State or political subdivision of a 

23 State, that— 

24 ‘‘(i) owns or operates, or anticipates 

25 owning or operating, an electric or natural 


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1 gas facility or an electric or natural gas 

2 operation; 

3 ‘‘(ii) supplies, or anticipates sup4 plying, natural gas or electric energy to an5 other utility special entity; 

6 ‘‘(iii) has, or anticipates having, pub7 lic service obligations under Federal, State, 

8 or local law or regulation to deliver electric 

9 energy or natural gas service to customers; 

10 or 

11 ‘‘(iv) is a Federal power marketing 

12 agency, as defined in section 3 of the Fed13 eral Power Act.’’. 

14 SEC. 4. UTILITY OPERATIONS-RELATED SWAP. 

15 (a) SWAP FURTHER DEFINED.—Section 

16 1a(47)(A)(iii) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 

17 1a(47)(A)(iii)) is amended— 

18 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of subclause 

19 (XXI); 

20 (2) by adding ‘‘and’’ at the end of subclause 

21 (XXII); and 

22 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

23 ‘‘(XXIII) a utility operations-re24 lated swap;’’. 


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1 (b) UTILITY OPERATIONS-RELATED SWAP DE2 FINED.—Section 1a of such Act (7 U.S.C. 1a) is amended 

3 by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘(52) UTILITY OPERATIONS-RELATED SWAP.— 

5 The term ‘utility operations-related swap’ means a 

6 swap that— 

7 ‘‘(A) is entered into to hedge or mitigate a 

8 commercial risk; 

9 ‘‘(B) is not a contract, agreement, or 

10 transaction based on, derived on, or ref11 erencing— 

12 ‘‘(i) an interest rate, credit, equity, or 

13 currency asset class; 

14 ‘‘(ii) except as used as fuel for electric 

15 energy generation, a metal, agricultural 

16 commodity, or crude oil or gasoline com17 modity of any grade; or 

18 ‘‘(iii) any other commodity or category 

19 of commodities identified for this purpose 

20 in a rule or order adopted by the Commis21 sion in consultation with the appropriate 

22 Federal and State regulatory commissions; 

23 and 

24 ‘‘(C) is associated with— 


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1 ‘‘(i) the generation, production, pur2 chase, or sale of natural gas or electric en3 ergy, the supply of natural gas or electric 

4 energy to a utility, or the delivery of nat5 ural gas or electric energy service to utility 

6 customers; 

7 ‘‘(ii) fuel supply for the facilities or 

8 operations of a utility; 

9 ‘‘(iii) compliance with an electric sys10 tem reliability obligation; 

11 ‘‘(iv) compliance with an energy, en12 ergy efficiency, conservation, or renewable 

13 energy or environmental statute, regula14 tion, or government order applicable to a 

15 utility; or 

16 ‘‘(v) any other electric energy or nat17 ural gas swap to which a utility is a 

18 party.’’. 

Æ 


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